the sacred treasury

O Mankind! Will you be kind enough to tell me when Allah proclaimed that sins were blotted out by sacrifice of any kind? The law of sacrifice is the law of man! It is not yours to throw your burden of sin upon any living thing! Regard not what men have said. They spend themselves in sacrificing lambs, sheep, calves and birds to lifeless gods of stone!

You are beside yourselves! Think! Has He not made Heaven and Earth and all there is therein? All is given unto you for food! Just as he who works the killing of a man’s soul, kills his own soul, whoever defiles the soul of beasts, defiles his own soul. No soul of any animal which Allah created will be shut up — they will accuse man!

Beware, for you know not what you do! Can you be kind and just, and still be filled with cruelty? Allah does not require sacrifice — no sin was ever blotted out by sacrifice of animal or man! It is sin itself to bring before His Face burnt offerings as offerings for sin! A god that takes delight in sacrifice is not Allah! The only sacrifice Allah requires is self — it is the rock on which man builds himself, by the vigorous exercise of will!

Purify your hearts by love and righteousness! None can right the wrong but he who does the wrong — he must strive to extricate himself! If one is full of love he can do nothing else but worship Allah. When you would offer sacrifice unto Allah — take your gift of grain or meat, and lay it on the table of the poor. No blessings can attend the one who takes the food from hungry mouths! The coming age will not require priests, and shrines, and sacrifice of life. There is no power in sacrifices to help a man to holy life — it is an evil practice!